Note from JWR:

Today we present a guest article written under the pen name “Zachary Taylor” that was originally published as part of The Last Man On Earth Studies.

Basic Mechanics Skills and Knowing Vehicular Limitations Part 1, by “Zachary Taylor”

Basic mechanical knowledge and skills are something that any person who hopes to be successful in TEOTWAWKI must have. I am not speaking just about vehicles, but vehicles are an excellent avenue to learn them. I can only talk with authority on my own past, but I know that the wealth of much of my knowledge comes from my extensive background in working on cars.

I won’t claim that any of this post is going to be something that you have never read before. Heck, I am willing to bet that you heard much of this speech by a parent or grandfather the day you turned 16. I know I did. And, like almost everyone in this country, I rolled my eyes.

Before you roll your eyes, I propose that we conduct a quick experiment.

I want you to drive down your local heavily used state highway or interstate, say, the one you drive on every day to work. Within 5 miles, you will see a broken down car. Now, the reason for this breakdown can and will vary. It could be because of a catastrophic motor event or a wreck,  but 90% of the time, it is there because the driver doesn’t understand the basics of vehicle maintenance, the limits of the vehicle, or how to fix the vehicle in either event.

Tire Maintenance
What’s the most common automotive issue I see on American’s roadways? Flat tires. Flat tires claim more roadside breakdowns than anything else. And not because the tire went flat, but because the owner either didn’t have a spare, the spare was flat, or most likely can’t change the tire. Of these cars you see on the side of the road, how many have a jack underneath them, or a wheel propping the car up, and were simply abandoned mid-task? How many of them are just left there because they didn’t have AAA? I have seen many a fine car left alone on the interstate for hours or days at a time.

Changing a tire is perhaps the simplest task a motorist can learn. And while it is simple, it teaches several lessons while also being a useful and money saving skill. These skills can save you valuable time and money in the every day world, while perhaps saving your life down the line. Changing a tire teaches many things including, but not limited to, the order of steps needed to complete an involved task, it teaches using a long handled tool to develop a moment to break loose lugs, balancing an unevenly weighed object, and even safety.

Now, for those of you who can change a flat tire, you realize that while it’s an inconvenient, it isn’t a big deal. For those of you who have practiced many times in your life, it is now a habit and can be easily fixed in a matter of minutes. Now, for those of you that can’t….what does a flat tire cost you? Mere minutes? Or hours? Do you have to call someone to come help you? What about their time? Does it cost you money? How is your stress level when you miss something important?

Yet, many times the problem is deeper than that.  I remember as a teenager my grandmother regularly telling me that my tires looked flat and that I needed to put air in them. But I always ignored her until one day the rim cut the tire down and I had a blowout. I remember driving to Auburn one time and I had a nasty blowout because a randomly 100 degree day caused the tire pressure to increase beyond the capability of the tire. In either case, simply paying attention to the tires would have raised an alarm and I would have rectified the situation. Not to mention that it would have saved me several hundred dollars.  But, I wasn’t in the habit of paying attention to my vehicle, neither by checking it out whenever I thought about it or paying attention to it’s behavior on the road.

Here are many things that can tip you off to a tire issue, but all require the driver to be in tune to the vehicle:

  • Uneven wear on the treads. If it’s worn on the outside, the tire pressure has been too low. If it’s worn in the center, the tire pressure is to high.
  •  Does the care pull to one side or the other while driving? This could be a misalignment or one under inflated tire, which will also cause uneven wear. 
  • Is there a “wobble”? If so, you could have tread separation and a blowout could be imminent. 

Furthermore, great care should be taken while driving to limit the hazards to tires. 

  • Always avoid potholes. It may not seems deep or wide, and maybe you have run over thousands of them in your life. But it only takes the right one at the right angle and speed to cut down a tire. That’s a a real bad thing to have happen at 70. 
  • Never run over objects on the road. IT may look like a piece of paper, but it could be a shard of metal or class ready to cut your tire. It may be a piece of plywood. Then again, it could be covered with nails. 

Now, how about understanding the limitations of your tires? For example, do you know what the capabilities of a type of tire might be? Do you know if the tires on your current vehicle can be used to go off-road, if the need arises? Conversely, do you know just how long to expect a set of off-road tires to last on the street? In the case of a damaged tire, for example, a cut tire…do you know how to accurately gauge the remaining usefulness of that tire? Or know how to extend it’s life by lowering tire pressure and travel speed? In the event of a flat tire, do you know just how fast you can continue to drive on it if need be? Or how to know if you have traveled as far as the physical limits of the flat tire will allow? Do you know what the danger signs of a tire are and can you gauge the severity? For example, what it means when you see the steel belts sticking out of a tire? Do you know what the effective stopping distance in your car is in all weather conditions? Specifically, do you know the conditions of your tires and how they might perform i the rain? In all cases, it requires the drive to be in tune with their vehicle, which in this age of automation and luxury, makes it easy for people to ignore all these important signs. 

So, many of you are asking just how this might save your life in TEOTWAWKI. Let’s talk about one of my posts from the 5 Stages of Preparedness. Specifically, Stage 1: The Immediate. Let’s say you have identified a major threat to all cities, specifically the one you live in. While it is important to always take care of your vehicle for your everyday life, it could become vital to your survival. Specifically, if you have to get out of Dodge. You will have so many other things on your mind that you don’t need to be worried about if your vehicle will get you where you need to go. Getting into habits such as checking tire conditions and pressure will go a long way to ensuring that at least the tires of your vehicle will hold up.  And, while you are on the go, you have to take care that you limit putting it in circumstances that it might fail you. Paying attention to driving conditions, specifically on the road, may save you minutes, hours, or even a dangerous circumstance that may claim others. For example, if almost everyone is trying to escape a city, the roadways will undoubtedly be extremely busy. There will be wrecks. There will be objects on the road. Slowing down, paying attention, and limiting the potential for cutting down you tires may save you when it may doom others. What if it’ raining? Getting out is the priority, but knowing the effective stopping distance of your tires due to their physical condition could save you from a costly wreck. 

But things happen. Sometimes there are forces you can’t control. What will you do then? Could you change a tire if you had to? More importantly, can you do it quickly and safely? Will it be such a habit that you can pay attention to your surroundings? What if you didn’t already have a vehicle and you needed one. You find one on the side of the road, abandoned. Keys still in it. But the owner couldn’t figure out how to use a jack. With 5 minutes work, you have secured potentially life saving transportation. We talked about understanding the limitations of the tire. Let’s say that you know there is a potential problem developing that you have identified. You also know that stopping is not a possibility. Understanding the limitations of the tires may allow you to continue your path. While it may not be the optimum speed or method, it may be enough to put those crucial miles behind you. 

What does it take to learn this skill? Just time. Luckily for you, your car manufacturer gave you all the tools you would need. I am willing to bet that there are instructions on the back of the cover panel to the secret compartment that houses the jack and the breaker bar in the trunk of your car. So, take some time on a Saturday afternoon to find out where that compartment is. Pull the cover off, grab the tools, and follow the directions. I promise that even the slowest of you will only need to change the tire 3 times before you will have it down. Even if you don’t believe in TEOTWAWKI, you have to believe in saving time and money. How about keeping you from walking down an interstate late one night to find a gas station? I can’t think of anything more scary for a woman than the thought of having to start walking down the street to find help.

Indirectly, there is a lot of things a person can gain from learning the basics of tire maintenance. How about the money and time that you can save from simply being in tune with your vehicle by getting in the habit of paying attention to the little things. No one likes buying tires. That’s a fact. Identifying potential problems like noticing the vehicle pulling to one side can save money by having it fixed early.  Maintaining the proper air pressure can maximize tire life, saving you money. Simply knowing how to change a tire can save you hours and stress. What about the things you can learn indirectly? Off the top of my head, I think about the cause and effect of air temperature and pressure. How about understanding mechanical properties and friction? If the tire is flat, the surface area increases, so the drag increases causing the car to pull to one side. How about using a breaker bar to overcome your own physical limitations of force? I know it all sounds simplistic to many of you. But I am not writing for those of you that understand. The average American knows virtually nothing about hands-on mechanical work of any kind. They have to learn it by living it. I can’t think of a better way to learn than to do so while discovering a valuable skill that has definite uses in your daily life and potential use to save it. 

Three Letters Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

JWR,
Thank you for letting your readers know about [public utility] natural gas system compressor stations. I, for one, was was blissfully ignorant about them, and had just assumed that natural gas was “always on.” So, now knowing that, I can now see that a tri-fuel generator that can quickly be changed to propane or gasoline would be best. Thanks also for mentioning the capacity limits of generators. That I was aware of, but I hadn’t ever looked at the specs on my GE refrigerator/freezer. Now I can see that I need to do a “load budget”, to determine what I can leave plugged in, and not bog down my generator. (It is a 3 KW, and all those lights in the house add up a load, real quick.) – Curtis N.

Mr. R. –
Regarding residential refrigerators and generators – I’ve tested a few, using a Kill-A-Watt and the Belkin Insight Tester and a test rig I built to use a clamp-on type multimeter. I’ve measured startup demands – locked rotor current (LRC) – and run current on the last 2 refrigerators I’ve bought, and on several owned by friends. I found that LRC averages between 1200 and 1400 watts, depending on size and design. That’s about 10-12 amps (NEC – National Electrical Code – specifies that circuits be sized to use no more than 80% of the circuit’s maximum capacity, so a nominal 15 amp circuit should never have to carry more than 12 amps, which is why refrigerators are on dedicated 15 amp circuits). The formula, BTW, is AMPS = WATTS divided by VOLTS. Or, WATTS = AMPS x VOLTS. Use actual measured figures for computation. For example, the utility-supplied voltage in my current house is consistently between 120.2 and 120.4 volts. My Honda EU3000i generator varies between about 114 and 122 volts depending on load.

Run current on every fridge I’ve tested – ranging from 18 cu ft to 26 cu ft – settles in well under 200 watts after 2-3 minutes. My old Amana 25 cu ft side-by-side consumed only 141 watts after 3 minutes, my new Samsung 26 cu ft consumes 155 running watts.

Fridge tip – outfit called ACU-RITE makes a wireless fridge and freezer thermometer, about $30 at Amazon.com. Put one of the sensors in the fridge, the other in the freezer, the display unit has a magnet to stick on the outside.  I suggest sensor placement near the warmest part of each. Experiment to find where that is. I tested my old Amana by setting the freezer control to “coldest” (which turned out to be -14 F) and adjusted the fridge to 33-34 F on the top shelf without freezing stuff below that shelf. Give the fridge 18-24 hours between setting changes to stabilize internal temperature. I then unplugged the unit and monitored temps. Without the doors being opened I found that the fridge rose to 46F in just under 6 hours, and when plugged back in took not quite 3 hours to get below 40F after cresting at 49F. The freezer never went above +5 F. On this basis I figured I could put the generator on other tasks for 5 hours at a time.

I experimented with [supplemental] external insulation, from blankets and quilts to rigid foam. Best results were with 2″ thick polyisocyanurate sheets (Dow calls their version “Tuff-R”) which have an R value of about 6.5 per inch. Using an infrared thermometer I found the weak spot in fridges is the door seals followed by the door itself, so I cut the side and top panels to overlap the door edges. To insulate the doors you’ll have to remove the handles. Securing it with duct tape, and sealing the sheet edge joints with duct tape, insulating the back (above the opening for the compressor and related hardware), both sides, top and doors, I got another 3 hours after unplugging before fridge temps rose to 45-46F. – Nosmo

Mr. Rawles,
I don’t know where you got your information that the ‘norm’ for natural gas pipeline compressor stations is electric powered. As a former pipeline CEO of a large pipeline system and still a consultant to the industry (therefore I believe that I have some basis in fact) I would suggest at least on the inter and intra state pipeline transmission systems as well as the majority of gathering systems the compressor stations are powered by natural gas (taken from the pipeline that they are compressing). Only in recent years has there been any real shift to electric drive compressors and those are typically only in areas of the country that are EPA challenged, i.e. they are considered ‘non-attainment’ areas regarding air quality and as such permits for new equipment is difficult to obtain if they are gas fired.
 
[The EMP and grid failure risk that] is relevant is most of the control systems [for natural gas pipelines] are run on grid-supplied power and the vast amount of these controls are digital in some form or fashion these days. Thanks, T.C. in Texas

Economics and Investing:

I recently had the opportunity to see the 2010 documentary titled “Inside Job“, via a rented Netflix DVD. It describes the background and aftermath of the 2008 global credit crisis. I highly recommend it. We are still paying for the mistakes (and crimes) described therein, as the bailout of the financial sector and bubble re-inflation continues, to the tune of $85 billion per month, via Quantitative Easing (QE). Regulators have done nothing to rein in the risk created by the global derivatives casino, which is now even bigger than in 2007. The Fed and the Treasury are busy re-inflating the credit and housing bubbles to even larger proportions. When the next credit collapse occurs (and it will, once B.S. Bernanke and Company lose control of interest rates), it will be cataclysmic for the markets, for the purchasing power of the Dollar, and for the livelihoods of the American people. Be ready for this: Minimize your exposure to Dollars, hedge into tangibles, get out of debt, and develop a second source of income.

Over at Zero Hedge: JPMorgan Says “Buy Gold”

Ron Paul – Bernanke Said The US Economy Is In Bad Shape! He’s Getting Out Before Collapse!

Items from The Economatrix:

Dollar Down As Fed Officials Cast Doubt Over Taper

New Vs. Old On DJIA 30

Fed In “Monetary Roach Motel,” Won’t Taper:  Schiff

Odds ‘n Sods:

Oregonians warned to prepare for the ‘big one.’ (Thanks to R.B.S. for the link.)

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I noticed that DemCAD has posted a video review of my upcoming novel Expatriates.

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Reader B.C. mentioned seeing some stirring words, over at From The Trenches: To Those Who Would But Ask

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Some useful reading, over ar Guerillamerica: Information Operations, Part Three: Operational Security

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Signs of the times: Soldier hit and dragged 3/4 mile by car. (Please make a donation, if you can afford to.)

Note from JWR:

Because of some factual errors and key omissions, today’s writing contest entry on “Anesthetics for TEOTWAWKI” has been removed by the Editor.

News From The American Redoubt:

I heard about another prepper-friendly church in the American Redoubt: Marble Community Fellowship. They are located at 3383 Hwy 25 N., Northport, Washington, 99157. (Northport is in the remote, sparsely-populated north-east corner of Washington.) They are 100 miles north of Spokane, on the Columbia River and are seeking conservative, patriotic families to relocate. They presently have only an event web site: MarbleCountry.com, but a brochure PDF titled “A Time for Solutions” is available upon request. Contact: Barry Byrd.

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A coin dealer that I can recommend is: American Coin and Vault, in Spokane, Washington. They are located on the corner of Wall St. & Nebraska, just north of Wellesley Street and south of Francis Street. (Full address; 5525 N. Wall St., Spokane, Washington 99205) I started doing business with them back when they operated out of a converted residence, back in the early 1990s.

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Check out Montana Brand Tools. Made in Ronan, Montana.

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I heard from my old friend Terry that Armageddon Armory (2809 Garrity Boulevard in Nampa, Idaho) has heavily restocked following the recent gun and ammo shortages. They sell locally, or can ship guns to your local FFL. They now have in stock: Many models of AR-15s and M4geries including Colt, Armalite, S&W, SIG-Sauer, Windham, Daniel Defense, Ruger, Anderson, Mossberg, Stag Arms, Bushmaster, and DPMS. They also sell AR receivers, bolts, stocks, parts and a huge pile of magazines including Magpul, Surefire, and more. They also have several models of AR-10s made by Armalite, Bushmaster, and DPMS. Other guns on hand include Armalite, LAR and Barrett .50 BMGs, various AKs, PTR91s, Mini-14s, SKSes, M1 Carbines, M1A s, Mauser M48s, several Mosin Nagants, Swiss M1911 straight pull rifles, Cobrays (“MACs”), and huge host of hunting rifles, handguns, riotguns, and .22s of all sorts including Rascal and Cricket youth rifles. One of their specialties is Saiga shotguns in .410, 20 gauge, and 12 gauge, both standard and tactical conversions, plus drums and many parts in stock. Their ammo inventory has also rebounded and presently includes .30-06, .308, 8mm Lebel, .45 ACP, 9mm, .380, 9mm Makarov, .357 SIG, 10mm, .38, .357, .44, . 45LC, and tracer ammo for .223, .308, 7.62x54R. They have lots of .50 BMG ammo in stock (new and remanufactured) including Ball, Armor Piercing, Tracer, and APIT. (Note: they have no .22LR, .17 HMR, .22 Magnum, .30-30, .30 Carbine, .30 Tokarev, or .22-250 in stock at this time.) They also sell Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) by the entree, the single pouch, by the case of 12, or by the dozens of cases. Phone (208) 465-3577, for details.

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Murders are so uncommon in the American Redoubt that nearly every one of them gets detailed news coverage.

Economics and Investing:

IRS: Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Be $20,000 Per Family.

India’s coin shortage worsens. Gresham’s Law is showing its hidden hand. (Thanks to Diana for the link.)

Peter Schiff – Whatever the Fed Does, Gold Will Rally! US Economy Already Ruined. Schiff posits that the current “recovery” is artificial and the that Fed will increase Quantitative Easing. In the long run, interest rates must rise. Schiff foresees more QE, larger deficits, and another currency/sovereign debt crisis, so he is quite bullish on gold.

G.G. flagged this: U.S. disability rolls swell in a rough economy

Items from The Economatrix:

How The Fed’s Bazooka Misfired:  QE-Infinity Sends Experiment Awry

To Challenge These Statements Is Blasphemous

Eurozone Recovery Fades – Will The U.S. Follow?

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Right now, the FOMC has ‘a tiger by its tail’ – it has lost control of monetary policy.  The Fed can’t stop buying assets because interest rates will rise and choke the recovery.  In short, today’s decision not to taper was driven by unimpressive economic data, the fear of a 3% yield on the 10 year Treasury and gridlock in Washington.  If the economy cannot handle a 3% yield on the 10 year, then the S&P 500 should not be north of 1700.  It is remarkable that the equity market continued to buy into easy money over economic growth.  QE3 has been ongoing for nearly a year and the economy is not strong enough to ease off the accelerator (forget about applying the brake).  Simultaneously, the S&P 500 is up 21% year to date and the average share gain in the index is over 25%.  Maybe today’s action will turn out to be short covering, but if it was not then paying continually higher prices for equities in a potentially weakening economy is a very dangerous proposition.” – Mike O’Rourke at JonesTrading  

Note from JWR:

There are now just eight days until the release of my novel Expatriates. Please wait until the release day to place your order. That way you will get the best possible price, and we might see the book up in Amazon.com’s Top 20.

Pat’s Product Review: CRKT Parasaw

Every now and then I run across one of those, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that…” products – and kick myself for not thinking of it. Anyone who has been around knives at all, probably know who Ken Onion is. He’s not only a very talented custom knife maker, but he has collaborated on a number of different knife designs, with various knife companies. I once did an article about Ken Onion, and one of his designs for Knives Illustrated magazine, when I was the West Cost Field Editor. Ken and I had a great talk on the phone – me in Oregon and he was in Hawaii – and to say he is a wild man is putting it mildly – but a lot of fun to talk to.
 
So, it was quite a surprise to me, to learn that, Onion designed a new Paracord bracelet. Anyone who is a Prepper or Survivalist, are aware of the popularity of the Paracord bracelets that folks have been wearing for a year or two, on their wrists. And, it’s a good idea, if you’re out camping, in combat or just out for a hike, to have some type of cord, you never know when you might need to lash something down, use it to replace a broken shoe lace – or any number of other emergencies that come along when you are out in the boonies or in a combat situation. So, I like the idea of the Paracord bracelet – and I own several!
 
Ken Onion collaborated with Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) and created the new Parasaw bracelet. What they’ve done is, besides the woven Paracord bracelet, that you can find in many stores, Onion devised a way to place a small wire survival saw inside of the bracelet. And, the saw isn’t one of those cheap ones, either. Instead, it is a tungsten carbide coated wire saw – one that can actually cut, and it cuts quite well. The saw is encased in a plastic wrapper inside of the Paracord, and you have to unravel the bracelet to get the saw out.
 
So, you have 8 or 9 feet of Paracord – depending on the size of the bracelet – it comes in small and large, and you have that cleverly hidden wire saw, for cutting down small (very small) trees, or branches. I used the Parasaw around my homestead, to cut small tree limbs and other material, and it actually works quite well. Now, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to attempt to saw down one of the large pine trees on my place – it’s not going to happen. But you’d be surprised at the number of uses this little saw is good for.
 
I’ve always said that simple is better – and in this case, I don’t see how you can make anything more simple, than having some Paracord on your wrist, and a small wire saw hidden inside of it for emergency use. If you get outdoors a lot, you need to be prepared! Everyone in my family has the new CRKT Parasaw, and I have a few extras around – just in case.
 
One note, don’t take the Parasaw apart just to see the wire saw inside – you more than likely won’t get the bracelet back together – this is for emergency situations – not for playing around. At $24.99 each, they are a darn good thing to have – and they come in different colors, and as already noted, two sizes to fit just about any wrist. The Parasaw is very hot-seller for CRKT, and don’t be surprised if they are out-of-stock on some colors and sizes – get one now! – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Jim’s Product Review: Brad Thor Alpha Jacket

Most SurvivalBlog readers have heard of Brad Thor. He is a contemporary novelist who is a master of the techno-thriller genre. Several of his books have become bestsellers, and one of them reached #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. Brad recently teamed up with the clothing maker Scottevest, to design a quite versatile concealment jacket that they call the Alpha Jacket. Brad arranged to have them send me one of these for test and evaluation.

When the jacket arrived I was impressed from the start. The only disappointment was seeing “Made in China” on the tag. Like so many other manufacturers, Scottevest has found that offshore production is the only way to stay cost competitive. Seeing any product from an American company that is produced in China chafes me. But in this case, I can see why it was a necessity. This jacket has a very complex design (with an amazing 35 pockets!) that is very labor-intensive to produce. If it were produced in the U.S., I suspect that the high production cost would necessitate a retail price near $350. Even with offshore production it is priced at $200.

This jacket’s design is so advanced that it has an operator manual. The pockets and special features are so diverse that for the sake of brevity, I’ll just refer you to the maker’s web site for details. Even a large handgun can “disappear” in this jacket’s voluminous pockets. (In my tests, using a Glock 21 and a Glock 30, I found that it was best to use a holster clipped to a larger rectangular piece of sheet hard plastic to eliminate any “printing” of the pistol’s outline or any telltale sagging of the jacket. (I used a “roto” paddle-style holster clipped to a piece of plexiglas.) Even someone physically groping the jacket from the outside would just think that it was a large paperback book or perhaps a Kindle or a similar-size electronic device.

The jacket’s exterior is a quiet and nonreflecting charcoal gray fabric with an unusual texture. The maker claims that this fabric has a reduced IR signature. (I didn’t have a chance to verify that with my PVS-14 night vision scope.) It should be great at night, in shaded forests, or in urban environments, but black is a color not often seen in nature (except in shadows), so it would stand out in high contrast in most natural environments, during daylight.

The jacket that I received is a size Large, and it fit me well, although it was a bit baggy in the midsection. (I’m 6’2″ and a fairly muscular 193 pounds.) I suppose that once you loaded up the jacket with a pistol, extra magazines, a cell phone, a Surefire light, a Kindle (or Netbook) and assorted do-dads, that all of that extra roominess would be appreciated. And I’ve been told that some of the roominess is intentional, for an “armor cut,” meaning that it allows room for body armor to be worn underneath.

The jacket’s main zipper is quite stout, but most of the others seemed a bit lightweight, for my preference. Time will tell if they have sufficient durability.

One interesting feature is an RFID-blocking pocket, designed to protect your passport or “smart” credit cards from scanners.

Another neat feature is a cell phone pocket with a clear plastic window that allows you to operate the phone while it is still in the pocket. (Or if you have an iPhone or MP3 player with a display, you can read the details on the music track that is being played.)

One other feature that deserves special mention is a pair of short vertical zippers in roughly kidney position at the waist. These can be zipped up to allow fast access to a pistol carried on the belt over the buttocks, for either right-handers or left-handers. For those who carry concealed, this feature alone makes the jacket worth buying!

All in all, I was impressed with the Alpha Jacket. Brad Thor came up with an exceptionally good design, and it was well executed by Scottevest. For serious preppers, this would be a great jacket to acquire for everyday wear, since the 35 pockets could be loaded up as a veritable “wearable bug out bag” that would not attract any suspicion.

Letter Re: Natural Gas Powered Generators in a Disaster–Their Compressors, and Yours

James,
Thanks for the information you deliver every day. I have recently gone on Social Security Disability and have some money to further our preps. My wife and I will hunker down in place, that being said, we have done what we can to make this as easy as possible. We can heat our home without electricity, but still need a solution for limited electric needs in the event of power outage. We are looking at the Honda EU2000i portable generator with the multi-fuel upgrade. In our years here we have never lost our natural gas supply, but have often lost our electric power. We propose to hook the genny up to our house gas supply, ready to go into service when the lights go out. 15 amps of 110 AC plus the 12 DC power would be a great addition to our supplies. Given we have beans, band aids and defense, this is a big purchase at $1,200 or so. I’m looking for advice.
Thanks, – Michael From Pennsylvania

JWR Replies: That is probably a decent solution, but only if your local gas utility provides natural gas via local wellhead pressure (possible in Pennsylvania, given your oilfields) or if they supply remotely-sourced gas via natural gas-powered line compressor stations.  If they use grid electricity-powered compressors stations (which is still the norm), then the gas pressure could stop after a couple of days of a power grid failure. But if they use natural gas-powered line compressors FROM END TO END, then you’d be fine.

You need to call your local utility and ask for a subject matter expert to talk to, to be sure. DO NOT settle for “happy-happy” front office assurances of system reliability and continuity. You need to talk with an engineer who knows about their set-up, first hand.

The second issue is the requisite size of your generator. Most residential refrigerators normally draw around 12 amps, but the peak load (on startup), expressed as Locked Rotor Amps (LRAs), can be substantially higher. Your generator needs to be able to handle that LRA load. You will need to research the LRA rating of your particular refrigerator’s compressor. Here is an example: (Click on “Specifications.”) This is a typical modern 23-cubic foot refrigerator that draws 8.5Amps when running, but the Minimum Circuit Required is 15 Amps. The latter reflects the LRA requirement.